The Shelters for Gender-Based Victims in Galicia and Asturias, Architectural Models of Home?

Abstract

In the 70s of the 20^th century, the first shelters for victims of gender-based violence were set up in England, promoted by activists and feminist organizations. Over the time, they have been incorporated as an essential residential facility into the policy to fight against gender-based violence. Despite this, at least so far, Spain has not taken into account the adaptation of their architectural conditions to the double objective that they have to fulfill: protecting women from their aggressors, on one hand, and to provide them with support to overcome their harmful situation, on the other. According to this, the facilities have to provide security, as well as physical and psychological wellbeing, aspects that respond to spatial and formal characteristics that are yet to be defined. The article proposes to determine them from the homeness, a term that link the proper spatial qualities of a home with measurable architectural indicators, independent of the programme, the organization, the conceptual approach, and the housing type of the facility. The application of this set of indicators constitutes a method for the assessment, individual or compared, of any shelter by pointing out the spatial and formal requirements that are necessary for the setting up of any housing facility. In order to verify their suitability, they are applied to three examples that, located within the territorial scopes of the autonomous communities of Galicia and Asturias, represent the three existing forms of the shelters. The results prove the usefulness of the method, either as a diagnostic tool for already existing facilities or as a guide for an architectural project, ex novo or fitting-out works.